Thursday, 8 December 2011

Charlotte Delbo - Auschwitz and After

This
is a really moving book. It is in translation and I’m not really sure why I didn’t
read it in its original French. Nevertheless, it seems to have been translated well.

Charlotte
Delbo, Auschwitz survivor, presents a series of poems, vignettes and prose
poems about her experiences of Auschwitz and after, and of the experiences of
others she knows.

Auschwitz
is always with her.

She
doesn’t colour her accounts with memory or with trying to explain what it was
all about. She recreates the feeling of the place and of the experience and
brings some immediacy to her readers.

I
found myself resisting reading this at times. I didn’t want to confront the
darkness. It is anything but a comfortable read.

The
disorientation that she and others she knew felt after release was remarkable.
Nothing seems all that important. Some habits from the camp cannot be lost. In some
cases it was too soon to form new relationships and then became too late.

A
few particular passages really stand out.

She
recalls having to count the dead every day. One day they see Alice’s leg. Alice
had a false leg. Seeing the detached leg indicates that Alice has died.

She
describes a Christmas Eve in the camp. They manage to have a feast of
vegetables and put on a little home-made make-up.

Charlotte
manages to buy a copy of Molière’s Le Misanthrope. They put on a performance
in the camp. Charlotte also learns the play off by heart. She recites it to herself
– sometimes up to three times - during roll call.

In
the passage about Gilberte, the reader really can feel the disorientation after
release. Gilberte is even afraid to leave her hotel room.

Delbo
brings us close to understanding what it was like to be there. This seems to
work better than fiction or autobiography written from memory.